My restraint almost snapped at her admission, but then Gloria Garrison walked into the roped off area, carrying an Oscar in each hand. Her son, Dane, was right behind her. Hollywood was a small world, and I knew both of them.
“So this is where you wandered off to.” Gloria lifted one of the statues. “You missed it! We beat out the competition and managed to snag this beauty after you left.”
“Best picture?” Morgan gasped.
“Yes,” Dane confirmed. “Which is why you should have done the Winner’s Walk and come back to the theater; to be on stage with us when we accepted the award. That was the plan. Remember?”
I knew that he was her agent, but that didn’t mean I was going to stand by and watch while he scolded my girlfriend. One of the advantages to declaring myself publicly was that I had the right to step in, and that’s exactly what I did by moving in front of Morgan. Dane’s eyes jumped to my face, filling with shock as though he’d just realized I was there.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he barked at me.
“Escorting my girlfriend while she gets her first Oscar engraved.”
The same woman who’d assisted us walked up, handed Morgan her statuette, and took both of the ones Gloria held. Dane’s gaze moved from me, to the Oscar in Morgan’s hand, and jerked back up to my face.
Morgan wasn’t paying any attention to the byplay between Dane and me as she gaped at Gloria. “I somehow managed to earn an Oscar. You made history as the second woman to earn one for best director. And we got best picture, too? That’s three of the big five awards!”
“Definitely a night for making history since no other film has gotten three of the big five since 2004.” Gloria grinned and gestured toward me. “And then there’s you, getting Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor to utter a word that’s never publicly left his lips unless it was in a script he was reading.”
“What the fuck?” Dane hissed. “My Morgan is your girlfriend? Since when?”
Hearing him call Morgan his had my blood boiling. I closed the distance between us, my chest almost bumping against his until I felt Morgan’s soft hand wrap around my elbow as she tried to tug me backward. She was successful, but only because I allowed it.
“Really, Dane,” Gloria sighed. “You need to work on your habit of picking the worst wording possible at times. You’re one of the best agents in the business for goodness' sake. You’re supposed to be good at talking to people. You’re not supposed to piss them off unintentionally.”
“What?” His head jerked in his mother’s direction, and he groaned. “Shit. I didn’t mean mine as in mine. I meant as in my client. If she’s dating anyone, then I should know about it. Especially”—he waved one hand in my direction—“if she’s dating the man who stepped in at the last second to present the award she was up for tonight.”
“Back off, Dane. She didn’t tell you because she had no idea I was going to be here tonight, let alone announcing her category.”
Morgan tugged on my sleeve and looked up at me. “How many times do you think we’re going to have to go through this conversation? First Lemon. Now Dane.”
I spotted my agent and publicist headed our way, cutting a swath through the crowd as they moved quickly. “At least Mario already knew about you being in my life, so the conversation with my people should be a little easier.”
“Your people?” she snorted.
“Yeah, sweetheart,” I chuckled. “My people.” I sent a glare in Dane’s direction. “And if your people aren’t more careful about how they talk to and about you, mine will be yours, too.”Twenty-OneMorganGage’s agent, Mario Elias, and his publicist, the legendary Howard Burns, watched both of us approach like we were some kind of live performance art. I wondered if it was because Gage had never publicly acknowledged a girlfriend or because they thought I wasn’t a good match for him. My nerves were soothed a bit when we reached them and introductions were made because both were warm when they greeted me and congratulated me on my win.
Of the two, his publicist was clearly the more dominant personality. I leaned into Gage as Howard gestured between the two of us once the introductions and small talk were over.
“I see you’ve met your match,” he laughed. “I’d say next time, some warning would be good, but—”
Gage tensed before cutting Howard off. “There won’t be a next time,” he growled.
“If you’d just let me finish my sentence,” Howard said sternly, “you’d know that what I was going to say was that next time you decide to make worldwide news, I’d love a heads-up.”
“I’ll do my best not to make another headline without giving you fair warning first,” Gage conceded with a chuckle. “I’ll be spending the rest of tonight taking Morgan everywhere she needs to go. We can talk tomorrow.”